That means advisors guiding clients to retirement need to think about their own, especially if they run small firms. Part of a firm’s marketing should be that someone will always look after clients when the firm founder is gone.
At the same time that advisors are working with their existing clients, they should be connecting with the clients’ children and family members. “Make sure you are connecting with the inheritors” of the great wealth transfer, he said.
“It is great to say you have gotten 80% of your clients into successful retirements. You should brag about that on your website,” he said. But that doesn’t mean a stable of older clients gives you a good business model. Private equity does not want to invest in a firm that has all older clients. “Those connections to younger clients are vital from a pure value proposition” for the firm, he said.